


The less savory route

by viridianova



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, lawyer AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 15:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2587115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianova/pseuds/viridianova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's always a little difficult when a former colleague becomes a rival— especially when they're dead set on making you their enemy. (Lawyer AU, some ImaHana pre-slash if you really squint.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The less savory route

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pennyofthewild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennyofthewild/gifts).



> I was so excited when I saw this prompt up for pinch hits that I knew I had to take it! This was a wonderful prompt, although I have to make the disclaimer that I have no experience in law at all, so this mostly comes from pop culture absorption. Imayoshi and Hanamiya are both such memorable characters so I hope I managed to do this prompt at least a little justice!

Imayoshi Shouichi had never heard the end of it since he had decided to become a prosecutor. He was heartless, because some of the defendants were probably innocents. He was a show-off, because other areas of law needed his sharp brain more. 

It was a good thing he didn't care about what people said about him, as long as he got respect.

He wanted to be feared, too. The only problem was that his colleagues had assumed that he was just some kid straight out of law school who was all book smarts and couldn't actually back any of that up with practical experience.

Even all of the assumptions in the world couldn't stop him, however, and Imayoshi quickly rose within the ranks of Touou Associates. He couldn't make it all the way to the top (because his bosses just _wouldn't die_ ), but he rapidly became the most promising young lawyer in the firm. Rumors had already started spinning about succession when the big bosses actually did start dying, but he didn't concern himself with that too much.

It wouldn't look too good if people actually thought he was gunning for the spot, after all.

He was even getting his own employee today.

It had been more sunny than Imayoshi liked when he'd left his apartment that morning. The glare was inconvenient, and maybe he should have taken that as a sign for what kind of employee he would be getting.

The kid who showed up in his office was a couple of years younger than him, but he had a meaner look in his eyes. It was hard to rub him the wrong way— but just something about the way this guy looked was almost enough to give him the shivers.

He came in and sat at the chair across from Imayoshi with all of the confidence of someone who thought they could own this place in a year.

 _In his dreams_ , Imayoshi thought. But he couldn't actually say anything like that, now could he?

"You must be Hanamiya Makoto." 

As if he hadn't already gotten every possible piece of information on this guy as soon as HR had told him that they were hiring someone new.

"And you're Imayoshi Shouichi, right? I'm surprised that you weren't there at my interview." His voice was smooth, but not kind at all. Although Imayoshi would never admit this to himself, he actually felt a little afraid of this guy.

"I had better things to be doing," Imayoshi said. He didn't even bother with his usual fake smile— the one that he used with pretty much everyone in the firm so that they thought he was a nice young man. Somehow, he thought this new kid— _Hanamiya Makoto_ — would see right through it.

That turned out to be an understatement.

* * *

It had been almost exactly two years since he'd met Hanamiya now, and in some ways very little had changed. Imayoshi still had his same role— not quite senior but definitely not junior. None of the big bosses had died yet. He had thought that today would be normal— or as normal as a day could be when he was about to start a new case.

But then a knock came on his door.

"Excuse me, Imayoshi-san?" His secretary was outside (that was another change, that he now had a secretary), and she looked a little bit hesitant.

"Yes?" He smiled at her— and for her, his smiles almost genuinely meant good will.

"Hanamiya Makoto is here to see you."

What odd timing. Imayoshi had pretended not to care too much about Hanamiya, after he'd left Touou Associates. But he had kept careful track of how Hanamiya had interviewed, and two months after leaving, he'd heard whispers of him joining up with Kirisaki Daiichi— a firm that specialized in ... rather unorthodox defense.

_Really? Hanamiya Makoto, a defense attorney?_

That had to make him laugh.

It figured that he'd show up today. Right before they were about to start one of the most high profile cases the firm would ever handle, that Hanamiya Makoto would be standing outside his door waiting to remind him of how much of a failure he had been for boosting him out.

"Imayoshi-san." He still had that same look in his eye— that look of arrogance that made it quite clear that he thought he was so much better than everyone else in the building. He still couldn't quite rise above things— he couldn't quite make himself palatable to that general, generic populace. That was really what separated the two of them.

Imayoshi really did want to think of himself as a decent guy.

"Hanamiya-san." He looked up from his desk, but didn't motion for the other man to sit down. Hanamiya wasn't even the type of person to appreciate things like common courtesy.

Maybe that was harsh. But then again, it was hard to respect someone who was so willing to cheat their way through cases that not even the ruthless Imayoshi could look the other way.

He would have warned every single law firm in Japan of what Hanamiya had done, and totally ruined his career in the process. Unfortunately, he had dug up some rather unsavory things in Imayoshi's own past in the process of both cheating the firm out of money and securing cases through evidence collected illegitimately. Things including some conversations that Imayoshi had been very sure were private about how he might climb the ranks of the firm a little faster.

That was always going to be a little unfortunate, honestly.

"I specifically requested this case because I knew you'd be on it."

Imayoshi looked up at him, just to get a sense of his expression. He'd ask how he knew something like that, but he already basically knew the answer to how. Hanamiya didn't care how he got his information as long as he had it.

'I'm gonna win, Imayoshi-san. There's no way you're gonna be able to prosecute this guy."

That just made Imayoshi smile— the almost feral grin that he only let show when he was pretty sure he nothing to lose.

"Good luck with that."


End file.
